Day 20. Riding the Cabot Trail, Cape Breton

 A 350 mile day, not to mention the 300 miles I made by the ferry last night.  A great riding day, probably my best so far on the trip. Off the ferry at N. Sydney at 8:45am and checkws in the motel at Truro, NS before 7pm. A little GPS or user fluke caused me to not track the first 75 miles of my ride. 😩

 Saying good by to my traveling buddy for the last 18 hours, Geoff from Ontario. I met him yesterday waiting to board the ferry at Argentia.  When I was surprised to find my room for the night has 4 total bunks I thought about Geoff who didn't have a birth for the night and was going to sleep in a lounge chair.  I invited him to take one of the beds. 

 Geoff kindly offered to buy my dinner that evening. It was delicious and I stuffed myself at the buffet.  Geoff has a wife of 42 years 3 kids and two grandkids. He got a severance from Digital Computing back in the early 90's as they were failing to grasp the nacsient PC market that would change the face of  computing for main frame servers. Then he started up a franchise business where he brewed or made wine for individuals which allowed them to save on about 50% on Canadian taxes. 10 years ago he sold the business, retired and has been doing big motorcycle trips on his Honda ST1300 and has 80,000 miles on it in the last 7 years. He's also done several tours in Europe. 

  I've been over this bridge before!!  Just a few days ago. Crossing the Bras d'Oro, Cape Bretons own Inland Sea, a very long lake connected at both ends to the ocean. 

Geoff suggested I do the Cabot Trail.  It added about 150 miles to my day because I had to go north to circle the peninsula that juts into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.   It turned out to be a great recommendation. 

 The road took me up along the north eastern coast of Cape Breton facing Cabot Straight with constant elevation changes and changing vistas of the ocean. 

  This is the long and narrow bay at Ingonish where I stopped to take lunch. 

This is the smile I had on my face most of the day. I smiled so much my face started to hurt. 

  At the north end of Cape Breton Highlands Narional Park looking back to the south.  Beautiful relief. 

  

It was like an all day long sucker and the weather was up to matching the scenery. 

 After the Cabot Trail I was now heading back in the right direction, towards the center of the Nova Scotia mainland.  I had options of going to the south to see Halifax and the southern coastline on the Atlantic, or heading straight east towards the ferry at Digby along the Bay of Fundy where there were two ferries a day going to St. Johns, NB or head east, to the north of the Bay of Fundy directly back into New Brunswick.  The terrain had turned back into rolling hills and the weather was about to get wet. I decided to shelter in Truro which would keep all 3 of my options open until tomorrow when I'll evaluate the weather and how I feel about the day. 

And the rains came but not on me. I'm safe in my hotel room. The towel I strapped over my seat was to reduce the amount of rain soaking into the padding, hoping to keep my bottom side dry tomorrow!!